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Fayette commissioners expected to adopt comprehensive plan next month

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Fayette County commissioners are set to vote to adopt the 10-year Fayette County Comprehensive Plan after holding a hearing for final public input.

“Today is one of the final steps in the comprehensive plan process,” said Brandi Rosselli, the manager of planning services at Mackin Engineering Co., the firm hired in 2017 to draft the plan.

The comprehensive plan is a document that acts as a guide for growth and development across the county. It must be updated every 10 years, and doing so involves soliciting public input.

Rosselli said they started working on the draft of the plan in the summer of 2017 by issuing a public survey. Additional steps included holding public outreach events, having a booth at the Fayette County Fair, holding two rounds of public open-house meetings in eight locations, having youth focus groups with high school students, conducting stakeholder interviews and mailing municipal surveys. County officials received a finalized draft plan in late 2018.

“As you can see, there have been multiple opportunities for people to provide input and comment and review the plan over the last year and a half,” Rosselli said.

Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink asked Rosselli about the feedback she received as well as the top three areas of concern from residents.

“The feedback was positive,” Rosselli said, adding that their community survey resulted in 800 responses. “A lot of people care about the county, they like the county and feel like there’s a lot of historical and tourism assets and want to see the county move forward in the next 10 years.”

Along with concerns like blight and workforce issues, Rosselli said the number-one issue was broadband availability in the county, followed by infrastructure and then preservation of farmland as well as natural resources for the benefit of residents and tourists.

“It’s been a very public and thorough process,” said Commissioner Vincent Vicites. “I’m very satisfied with the public input, and now we have a blueprint that we can follow for the next 10 years.”

Once the plan is adopted, the commissioners plan to immediately implement the plan by applying for available grant funding to begin necessary updates on the zoning maps and ordinances, for example, including digitizing zoning maps. The current maps are on sheets of paper that number in the thousands.

“It’s very time-consuming and not very efficient,” Rosselli said, adding that the digitized versions of those maps can make locating parcels much easier and can be viewed online or emailed. “You would greatly increase the efficiency of staff as well as the ease of use by the general public.”

Nobody from the public attended to offer any testimony in favor of or opposition to the plan.

The commissioners had the option of holding a special meeting following the public hearing to adopt the comprehensive plan, but Vicites scheduled the adoption of the plan to take place at the next county commissioners meeting in September so all three commissioners can vote on the resolution. Commissioner David Lohr was absent from Thursday’s meeting.

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